Koji Shima

Koji Shima (島 耕二, Shima Kōji, 16 February 1901 – 10 September 1986) was a Japanese film director, actor, and screenwriter.

Career

Born as Takehiko Kagoshima in Nagasaki, Shima left for Tokyo after graduating from high school.^[1] He was in the first class of the Nihon Eiga Haiyū Gakkō and joined the Nikkatsu studio as an actor in 1925.^[2] Playing mostly romantic leads, he appeared in films directed by such masters as Tomu Uchida and Kenji Mizoguchi.^[2] He turned to directing in 1939, and quickly came to prominence with films such as Kaze no Matasaburō, an adaption of a Kenji Miyazawa story, and Jirō Monogatari.^[1] After the war, he directed such films as Ginza Kankan Musume and Jūdai no Seiten at Shintoho and Daiei Studios. He won a prize at the 1st Moscow International Film Festival for Unforgettable Trail.^[3] Some of his last films were made in Hong Kong for Shaw Brothers.^[4]

He directed over 90 films as a director and appeared in over 90 films as an actor. He was once married to the actress Yukiko Todoroki.^[1]

Selected filmography

Director

• Kaze no Matasaburō (風の又三郎) (1940)
• Jirō Monogatari [ja] (次郎物語) (1941)
• Ginza Kankan Musume (1949)
• Hibari no komoriuta (1951)
• The Phantom Horse (1955)
• Warning from Space (1956)
• Zangiku monogatari (1956)
• Unforgettable Trail (1959)

Actor

• Jōnetsu no Shijin Takuboku (情熱の詩人啄木) (1936)
• Naked City (1937 [ja] (裸の町) (1937)

References

External links

Media related to Kōji Shima at Wikimedia Commons

• Koji Shima at IMDb
• Shima Kōji at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)